The World Stress Map (WSM) is a global compilation of information on the crustal present-day stress field maintained since 2009 at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. It is a collaborative project between academia and industry that aims to characterize the crustal stress pattern and to understand the stress sources. All stress information is analysed and compiled in a standardized format and quality-ranked for reliability and comparability on a global scale.
The WSM is an open-access public database and is used by various academic and industrial institutions working in a wide range of Earth science disciplines such as geodynamics, hazard assessment, hydrocarbon exploitations and engineering.